Getting Better!

Lots of practicing going on....

March for Babies

I just received a great e-mail from Sarah over at Mommy Daisy. She is upping the ante on the March of Dimes raffle that I will be holding on May 2nd when I walk in the March for Babies event in Silverdale, WA. Sarah is offering up a hand crocheted baby blanket (photos soon, she sent some and it is gooorgeous!!!!) It is in white, sage green, and butter yellow, so totally gender neutral. Believe me, you will want it.

So, if you want to enter, for every dollar that you donate to the March of Dimes, you will receive one chance/ticket in my raffle. You can donate as little as $1. Remember, every dollar gives you one chance, so $1 = 1 chance and $10 = 10 chances, etc. etc. Just send me a copy of your donation receipt and I will mark you down on my spreadsheet.

Prizes to date are either a handbag (fabrics may vary, I will discuss with winner) or a baby quilt (color theme picked by winner) made by me and a hand crocheted baby blanket by Sarah. This means that there will be TWO winners.

Now, I have to go corral the babe that has learned how to take her shirt off. Take care everybody!

There is a GREAT blog post over at To The Max that features an adult woman with cerebral palsy. It doesn't specify, but it sounds like she is a right hemi, just like Darsie.

Sisters

During a game of hide and go seek...

New Shirt on Etsy

Just posted this shirt on Etsy this morning.

Friday Fun: Favorite Room

Let me preface this by saying that this was extremely difficult for me to choose which room in my house is my favorite.

There are really three rooms in my house that I'm completely mad, head-over-heels, in love with. One is my sewing room. But it is too messy right now to photograph. It looks like some crazy crafter threw up all over it.

The second is my kitchen. It is huge, bright, stainless appliances, nice and shiny.

But third, the one that I love the most is my living room It is where we spend every night together on the couch, watching tv, playing games, giggling, laughing, sharing. It is the true hub of our home, both literal and whatever the opposite of literal is, unliteral?

Simply speaking it is where all the action is, as the photo clearly shows.

Thanks Ellen for putting up this meme/challenge for all of us! Your blog is a true gem and pleasure to read.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hooray, our insurance has approved Darsie's upcoming Botox shots. In fact, they've approved TWO separate procedures within a six month time period. How is that for awesome? It is scheduled for mid-March and we are very excited to see if it can help Miss Darsie. Her physical therapist is also going to try to get the approval to recast her for a new DAFO brace a week or so after her first round of Botox.

This video was taken in October, but it shows pretty well how Darsie's right foot turns in on itself when she walks:



The thought behind her Botox is to paralyze the muscles that have become too strong to allow the weakened muscles a bit of time to strengthen. Hopefully it will help her gait improve so she can walk more naturally.

Last day to vote to save handmade at Change.org

Please, please, please take a moment today to visit Change.org and vote to save handmade!

Today is the last day to make sure that this important matter of business gets presented to President-elect Obama!

March for Babies

I've decided to walk on May 2nd in Silverdale for March of Dimes at their annual March for Babies event. I'm going to entice everyone to donate to March of Dimes by offering a raffle. The prize will be the winner's choice: either a bag in this shape OR a baby quilt. Once the raffle has been held, the winner can choose their item and the color theme.

So, for each dollar that you donate to the March of Dimes, you receive one chance in the raffle. You have until midnight of May 1st to donate.

If you are interested in donating an item to the raffle, please e-mail me at lilliputianmama AT gmail DOT com.

If you donate through my page at March of Dimes, I *think* it will let me know. If you make another donation (you can donate to any walker or just by yourself, it is all good in my book) just send me an email confirmation of your donation.

Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

A New Shirt on Etsy

Tweet, Tweet!

How embarassing...

I spelled the title incorrectly in a post. Lasiest? WHAT? Last time I remembered, lasiest had a z in it. Oh my. You can tell where my head is these days, in the clouds, literally.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that we haven't seen the sun in almost four weeks. I'm beginning to mold.

Some videos to tide you over:


We held an impromptu dance party and this is what happened:


I won't bore you with more, but there are plenty more if you are looking for some sort of entertainment.

Charity for 2009

Last year I held an awareness giveaway for preeclampsia in May for the Preeclampsia Foundation. I made a baby quilt and gave each person who donated a dollar to the foundation one chance to earn that quilt. For each dollar a person donated, they earned one chance towards the raffle. I want to do something similar this year but I'm debating right now between three very important causes in my life.

May is Preeclampsia Awareness Month through the Preeclampsia Foundation.

September is Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month through United Cerebral Palsy.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month through the March of Dimes.

If you have a moment to answer a couple of questions, I would really appreciate it as it will help me pick my cause. I'd love to do them all but I just am not sure I can pump out a large project for each of them.

If you were to donate to one of those causes, which one would you choose?

Would you be willing to offer a giveaway for any of these causes?

If you were to donate money to earn a ticket to a raffle, what sort of a prize would most entice you? Would it be a quilt? Would it be a handbag?

Would you prefer to buy a product from my shop where the profits or a percentage of the profits were then donated to the cause?

Thanks so much for your time. If you have any additional ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Lasiest Blogger Ever Award

So, here we are, 9 days into January and no posts. I've had a struggle getting into 2009 and am finally feeling like I've got my head wrapped around straight. Darsie started her afternoon preschool with the "older kids" and the time changed has made it so we had to reschedule every therapy appointment for both Darsie and Elise. What a hassle! I've just now this morning rescheduled everything so we can make it.

The change to the afternoon class has been a bit of a struggle. Darsie definitely is showing how defiant of a four year old she can be. I don't know if this is her coming into herself or just attitudes picked up from other kids. I know change is tough on these babes so I'm assuming part of it is adjustment. Right? Please?

We finally moved both of the girls out of our room and into their own shared room. It is torture...both in having them clear across the house and the fact that now neither of them are sleeping well. Sleep has always been a struggle with both girls for the entire four and half years we've been parents.

I'm trying to get back into sewing. I had a mini burn out with Christmas but I'm working on a new bag pattern and I'm excited again. I've recently picked up some fabulous fabric, which always helps. I created some sewn cards recently that were a lot of fun. I've put them up in my Etsy shop and hopefully will have some more soon.

Darsie's botox is finally scheduled for the start of March. I'm excited and optomistic about it. I will post a video of her walking without her DAFO brace prior to the procedure and then follow ups afterwards. Her rolling in of the foot is getting worse and worse and she is complaining that her brace hurts now because of the muscle pull. No matter how tight I put her brace on, she is getting red spots when she wears it, too. I just hope we're in time for the Botox to help, even in the slightest.

Jeff had a birthday this past week. So happy birthday Love!!!